that
of any of his predecessors. It is doubtful if the nature of the machine
has changed during all the years of its history. Tweed and Croker were
only natural products of the system. They typify the vulgar climax of
organized looting.

In 1913 the Independent Democrats, Republicans, and Progressives
united in a fusion movement. They nominated and, after a most spirited
campaign, elected John Purroy Mitchel as mayor. He was a young man, not
yet forty, had held important city offices, and President Wilson had
appointed him Collector of the Port of New York. His experience, his
vigor, ability, and straight-dealing commended him to the friends of good
government, and they were not disappointed. The Mitchel regime set a
new record for clean and efficient municipal administration. Men of high
character and ability were enlisted in public service, and the Police
Department, under Commissioner Woods, achieved a new usefulness.
The decent citizens, not alone in the metropolis, but throughout the
country, believed with Theodore Roosevelt that Mr. Mitchel was "the
best mayor New York ever had." But neither the effectiveness of
his administration nor the combined efforts of the friends of good
government could save him from the designs of Tammany Hall when, in
1917, he was a candidate for reelection. Through a tactical blunder of
the Fusionists, a small Republican group was permitted to control the
party primaries and nominate a candidate of its own; the Socialists,
greatly augmented by various pacifist groups, made heavy inroads among
the foreign-born voters. And, while the whole power and finesse of
Tammany were assiduously undermining the mayor's strength, ethnic,
religious, partizan, and geographical prejudices combined to elect
the machine candidate, Judge Hylan, a comparatively unknown Brooklyn
magistrate.

How could Tammany regain its power, and that usually within two
years, after such disclosures as we have seen? The main reason is the
scientific efficiency of the organization. The victory of Burr in New
York in 1800 was the first triumph of the first ward machine in America,
and Tammany has forgotten neither this victory nor the methods by which
it was achieved. The organization which was then set in motion has
simply been enlarged to keep easy pace with the city's growth. There
are, in fact, two organizations, Tammany Hall, the political machine,
and Tammany Society, the "Columbian Order" organized by Mooney, which